#late!!!

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic time!!

#late!!! #and i need to sleep so bad!!! #oh well!!!!

[low-fantasy]

writing workshop 1: show & tell | fiction variant

In the evening Maria sits straight-backed by the window in the parlor, one hand hidden in the pocket of her heavy skirts. Her face is pale and drawn; with the way the lamps light the room, it is impossible to see past her own reflection into the inky night. Her violet gown laced to the neck, a hand cupped in her lap, Maria waits. Listens.

The sound of ticking echoes in the manor.

Inside her pocket, the curving surface of the windup key is smooth, made warm by the constant stroking of her thumb. Its top resembles a figure-eight, or infinite loop, with two holes in the center for leverage when winding; it’s the path around these loops that Maria’s thumb travels now, in a continuous and familiar pattern. Her index finger braces the back. Occasionally her thumb and forefinger flex to turn the side of the key, her remaining fingers loosening against her palm to let the barrel of the key shift. The barrel is mostly smooth, made for easy use with a variety of devices and automatons, with two grooves close to the top.

It is the same sturdy key that Maria has been using since childhood, cast from an alloy of iron and some other dim metal, though now it is as mottled as frogskin. When her father gifted her the wind-up key on her twelfth birthday, it glimmered clear as silver in the lamplight. It had been made far away in the city, in one of my father’s factories, and arrived in a thick paper envelope that smelled of smoke. Her ripped the envelope in half and dropped the cold key into her hands.

“Here,” he said, pulling down an automaton from the mantle. It was one of his early models, short and oddly proportioned and burnished by the poor quality of the metals. It hardly looked like a man at all. And yet when Maria placed the key in its back and wound, it turned its head to her and blinked.

“Oh!” Maria gasped.

“You see, it’s simple. Now you can help your mother in the morning,” her father said, scratching his beard as he riffled through the remaining letters and parcels from the city. Maria stared at the little automaton, with its immovable joints and ticking gears. It blinked at her again.

And so the windup key made its new home in Maria’s right skirt pocket. She used it before breakfast to wind the devices at the windows, which raised the curtains and let the morning light in. When her father went away to the city and did not come back, he sent an automaton back who would follow people about and open doors for them. It was the largest automaton Maria had ever seen, and it did look much like a man, with round holes in its smooth face for eyes. She liked it, though it didn’t do much, and sometimes tripped on the carpet, and she had to use a hairpin to rescue it when her mother would lock in a storeroom.

When Maria woke in the morning, her mother’s servant would brush her hair in front of the vanity. The comb was merciless; the hands were worse, tugging and tightening strands of hair into place, fastened with pins that made Maria’s head ache all through the day. While she was worked upon, Maria looked into the vanity mirror imagining an automaton’s dispassionate and rhythmic movements instead, steady and gentle, no sneers or blotchy cheeks or sighs of exasperation.

One day, Maria thought, I will not need you anymore. And then you will go away forever. Her thumb rubbed the key in her pocket, steady and gentle.

Maria stayed in the house in the country. She did not go to the city for a debut or a season. Her mother did not mention a thing, but then her mother rarely spoke anymore, and her father only returned in the summer to install his newest inventions. Wielding the windup key, Maria felt a growing mastery of the house. When a new, steel-shining six-limbed automaton was installed in the kitchen, she waited until her father had departed to the city and informed the household servants that they were no longer needed via letters left on the dining table, sealed with wax marked by the figure-eight of a windup key. Maria’s mother wouldn’t mind—she hadn’t left her room in weeks.

And so Maria was left alone in the house, the house where she spends her time waiting at the window, listening to the gentle ticking of machinations at work, turning over a key in her hand, turning over, and over.

#tumblr writing workshop with betts #late!!! #i meant to do this earlier but dani went out of town so ive been in a Mood all week #(they are still out of town) #(i am still in a Mood) #not edited or uh read over so likely some weird typos

[memingursa]

Lol

#ai #bullshit #late stage capitalism #willy wonka

[mayhemchicken-artblog]

in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

#art #artists on tumblr #bitches will say ''in what context are these colors pretty'' #and then post the delicate hues of sunlight filtering through the leaves of a forest in late springtime #edit: censored the other op bc some of yall are starting to scare me and i don't want them getting harassed #and as long as im here. stop telling me it's the shrek colors i know it's the shrek colors #everybody and their mother has already mentioned it's the shrek colors

[nighthawkes]

I must sleep. Sleep is the mind-healer. Sleep is the big-life that brings total ability to fucking do anything. I will face my bed. I will permit the blankie to pass over me and snores to pass through me. And when sleep has gone past I will turn the outer eye to greet the new morning. When the sleep has gone there will be everything. Energy and will to live will remain.

#having a come to Jesus with myself about trying to work late #sleep is the only path to productivity. rest is the only thing that lets me get things done. #litany against not laying down

[amygdalae]

he can infodump so deep inside me I'll have trivia running down my leg

#maybe i shouldnt have posted this. too late

[taffywabbit]

they should invent a new type of "staying in bed for 2-3 hours after you wake up repeatedly opening and closing apps on your phone" where it makes you feel awesome and energized and emotionally fulfilled

#buny text #I'm fine i've just been staying up too late playing bg3 the past few nights #and then wanting to wake up before noon so my parents don't say anything rude to me so i end up getting less sleep to facilitate that #and it's catching up to me #i feel like this explanation maybe undermines my previous statement of 'I'm fine' a bit but I'm fine i promise #look at my lop posts boy

[lilithism1848]

#leftism #anti capitalism #socialism #communism #anarchy #capitalism #eat the rich #twitter x #late stage capitalism #leftist #anarchism

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

#talk tag #IT KILLS ME. REIGEN IS NOT MOB'S DAD. HE HAS A DAD. INGO IS NOT AKARI'S DAD. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAN ANYONE HEAR ME #(not even necessarily to say that ingo is in his late 20s but still) #(even if he was a 30-40-50 year old no matter how old he is no fucking teenager is gonna call some guy they met as a 15 year old ''dad'') #GAI IS NOT A FATHER FIGURE TO ROCK LEE HE WAS LIKE 13 WHEN HE WAS BORN! PLEASE!!!!!!!! #one time i saw that a ​person wrote a fic where mario was like a father figure to luigi. #they are TWIN BROTHERS. #not what this about but idk where else i can say anything about this. #just horrible #also sometimes someone is just An Older Friend like no familial relationship just a friend or acquaintance who is a lot older than you

[sunbloomdew]

do you ever see a person and you are overcome with incredible fondness? and you just think "oh." but not in a romantic or sexual way you are just filled with warmth and it makes you happy, it just does. and you think "i'm so happy you exist. i'm happy you are somewhere out there in the world, doing your thing". it's love but also not entirely

like people are lovely and i feel it in my entire chest like a burning candle that smells like roses and a sunny day

#on love #aroace experiences #aroace #aromantic #asexual #aspec #aroacespec #sunbloom talks #<3 #just late night revelations #i like love and i love people :)

[qyriad]

#capitalism #politics #bandcamp #patreon #late stage capitalism

[permdaydreamer]

This is for the people who didn’t party in their teens and twenties. For the people who didn’t have that “coming of age” movie experience with shenanigans and revelations. This is for the people who mostly keep to themselves. Who maybe prefer things to be quieter and gentler. This is for the people who don’t feel like they belong in a culture that values loud parties and flashing lights. I see you. And you are valid.

#teenagers #early twenties #late twenties #growing up #childhood #nostaliga #introvert #homebody #quiet life #outcast #shy #college #university #high school #neurospicy #neurodivergent #mental health #mental illness #social anxiety #it’s okay

[gravecats]

This is literally my favorite tweet of all time. It’s so powerful.

She Freaken Forgor Me

#kat’s meow #tweets #text posts #fave #for laughs #cats #ive been saying ‘she freaken forgor me’ nonstop lately #kat’s greatest hits

[ruushes]

sleeping arrangements (not sure tara would ever actually deign to sleep in the same 20ft radius as shovel but who can resist those big shiny insectoid black eyes 🥺)

plus:

#gale dekarios #shadowheart #astarion #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #my art #want to promote a greater shovel presence in the fanbase. where is all the shovel content. where is my beautiful daughter #she is gale's familiar. to me. #he may not necessarily *want* shovel #but it's too late now #he's her wizard it might be more apt to say #tara is not in any way shape or form a familiar she's like. his aunt. #also i have GOT to develop a faster way of making things like i have so many dumb joke ideas i can’t be rendering shit. unsustainable! 😭😭

[beebfreeb]

An Interview with Dot.

#beebfreeb art tag #comic #ms paint #artists on tumblr #art #I slept for two hours and then couldn't fall back asleep so I made this. Thank you comic ideas in my phone notes for giving me things to do #my ocs #<- sorry I've been really into one-off robot OCs lately #an interview with dot #robot

[softwaring]

#life lately #meme